Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

I thought of these babies while driving home from a meeting yesterday...You'll need:

• 24 white cupcakes
• 1 box instant vanilla pudding
• chocolate frosting

 When your cupcakes have cooled, hollow them out (I use one of my Wilton tips).

 Prepare the instant vanilla pudding using HALF of the milk on the instant recipe (my box called for three cups, so I used 1 1/2 cups).  Let the pudding set in the fridge for about 15 minutes before filling the cupcakes.  Fill a pastry bag with the pudding and squeeze it into the hollowed out portion of the cupcake.  You can see I added just a bit on the top because...well...I really love pudding.

Top with your favorite chocolate frosting.  Gosh, these were yummy!  And easy.

Tie Dye Cake

 I picked this little skill up from a cousin of mine and I LOVE it.  How cute and creative are tie dye cupcakes/cakes?  You can easily personalize the colors for a party's theme, bridal colors, etc.

 I separated my prepared (and rather white) cake batter, then dyed it with food coloring.  I made this batch for a Valentine activity, but I have also done rainbow ones.  You could pick whatever colors you like.

 Just spoon the batter into your pan/cupcake wrappers.  It doesn't need to look pretty.

Once baked, they look like this!  I also took it to the next level and dyed my frosting.  Again, I just filled my piping bag spoonful by spoonful with the different icing colors.  As a tip--refrigerate your icing BEFORE filling your piping bag as well as AFTER so the colors don't blend themselves together too quickly.

Carousel Horse Crayons

We have the biggest party of the year

going on on Saturday. It's my little miss'

second Birthday! ( I still can't believe she will be 2!)

Anyway, I have been doing lots of little projects

to get ready for the big day.

We are having the party at an outdoor carousel,

she is obsessed with carousels!

I found a cute carousel horse candy mold

that I decided to use to make crayons as favors!

I started by separating a few boxes of crayons by color

I took the wrappers off, broke them into little pieces,

and melted them on the stove like so:

I then poured the wax into the mold, put them

in the freezer for a few minutes and...

Voila!

All packaged up with tags (so no one think they are candy)

and ready to give away to our little guests!

Tune in next Thursday for pictures of the party!

First Birthday Party

I have exactly one month till my sweet baby girl turns two!!

I have already started birthday party plans and plan to show

you some DIY projects along the way as well as the big reveal.

While visiting my family in Georgia I stopped by Cake Art

to pick up some supplies, which is also where Bakerella does

some of her shopping. Too bad I didn't get to bump into her!

Anyway, before I show you this year's party plans, I thought

I'd show last years First Birthday Bash!

Here's the spread:

DIY flower poms

tutorial found HERE

homemade dipped pretzels

homemade cupcakes

homemade cake balls

inspired by Bakerella herself

DIY drink labels

designed on Adobe Illustrator

kids table complete with butcher paper

coloring surface

and a DIY hat, skirt, and homemade smash cake

this is what pure joy looks like

pure happiness

it was lots of work, but the pictures will last forever,

and she's worth it!

Now let the 2nd brithday party projects begin